Honest Grid Readiness Summary

A single-page accounting of where the burner stands as a grid resource today: strong design fit, four open physics gates, all design-stage.

What is designed and what is proven

The burner (MetroVolt) is designed to be an excellent firm, dispatchable, near-load grid resource: steady-state D-3He core, direct energy conversion with little thermal inertia, near-zero water so it can sit in cities and arid pockets, and an inverter interface that can offer a broad grid-services portfolio. None of this is yet proven on hardware. The machine is at the design-and-simulation stage.

The frozen design point is clear: 88.7 MW-class breeder physics anchors the program, while the burner runs at a 26.49 T plug and 17 T throat with a 5.44 percent neutron fraction (low-neutron, not aneutronic) and direct conversion. These numbers are fixed; the grid capabilities built on them are targets.

How the design answers them

The responses are architectural and sequenced: breeder first for helium-3 and to prove the program; a ~2032 test unit to probe the plug and regime; modular, redundant fleets plus storage and a grid tie to close the availability gap; and lunar helium-3 for long-term fuel. Each response is a plan, not a result.

Honest bottom line

As a grid resource, the burner is a strong design fit for the problems grids and cities face, and honest about four open gates that stand between the design and firm power. The right reading is a promising, unproven architecture with a clear, gated path, targeted commercial around 2036.